In networks, monitoring the performance of a communication system is part of a proactive strategy that can identify problems before service is affected. Various telecom and data related protocols, such as SONET, SDH, Optical Transport Network (OTN), Carrier Ethernet (IEEE 802.1ag, and related ITU-T standard Y.1731), and the like, implement various different measurements of performance. Typically, PM counter values are included in overhead of the various telecom and data related protocols with each network element (NE) processing and updating these values. Advantageously, PM data, i.e. PM counter values over time for a variety of metrics, provides network operators various statistics related to network performance for proactive identification of problems, maintenance of service layer agreements (SLAs) with end users, troubleshooting, and the like.
Network operators can access PM data through a network management system (NMS), element management system (EMS), craft interface (CI), and the like. Communication systems generally include multiple interconnected network elements (NEs) in a network to offer various communication services between the NEs and end users. The NEs can include a system processor with a storage element to maintain PM data for provisioned channels. Additionally, the NEs can communicate with the NMS, EMS, CT, or the like to periodically provide the PM data. Conventional systems typically maintain a database of historical PM data from various NEs in the communication system, and the PM data is stored in separate tables for different NE device types. As discussed herein, PM data generally includes a set of counter values for different PM statistics based on the specific protocol.
SONET/SDH generally includes a layered network structure including section, line, and path, and corresponding section terminating equipment (STE), line terminating equipment (LTE), and path terminating equipment (PTE). Each of the equipment provides termination of associated SONET/SDH overhead and corresponding processing of section, line, and path PM data. Exemplary SONET PM data includes coding violations (CV-S, CV-L, CV-P), errored seconds (ES-S, ES-L, ES-P), severely errored seconds (SES-S, SES-L, SES-P), severely errored frame seconds (SEFS-S, SEFS-L, SEFS-P), unavailable seconds (UAS-S, UAS-L, UAS-P), failure counts (FC-S, FC-L, FC-P), and the like.
OTN generally includes a layered network structure including section (Optical Transport Unit—OTU) and path (Optical Data Unit—ODU), and corresponding OTU and ODU termination equipment. Advantageously, OTN offers strong forward error correction (FEC), full transparency of client signals, switching scalability, and the like. Exemplary OTN PM data includes trail trace identifier (TTI), backward defect identifier (BDI), incoming alignment error (IAE), FEC related counts, and the like.
Carrier Ethernet defined in standard IEEE 802.1ag and IEEE 802.3ah, for example, provides Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) capabilities allowing connectivity verification, rapid recovery, and performance measurement. These and other techniques are being developed and standardized to introduce PM data to Ethernet signals to enable carrier-grade performance of Ethernet similar to SONET/SDH and OTN.
Referring to FIG. 1, a diagram illustrates a convention mechanism 100 for handling historical PM data. An NE 102 continuously generates PM data 104 for provisioned connections on the NE 102. The NE 102 provides the PM data 104 (e.g., SONET PMs including ES-P, SES-P, etc.) to a server 106, such as a NMS, EMS, or the like. A mediator 108 is configured to directly insert the PM data 104 into a database 110. For example, the mediator 108 can operate on the server 106. Load balancing can be achieved by invoking a separate virtual machine (VM) in the server 106 for PM data 104 collection. The PM data 104 is conventionally modeled specifically to device type of the NE 102, e.g. SONET/SDH, OTN, Ethernet, dense wave division multiplexed (DWDM), etc. For example, the database 110 includes a specific table 112 or the like for each different device type, e.g. SONET PM data is kept in a separate database 110 or separate table 112 from another device type, such as an Ethernet switch. Disadvantageously, different sets of PM data 104 parameters from different device creates a major challenge on the scalability and performance as PM parameters grow for all device types.